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9.30.2013

Thank you all so much for the warm words of encouragement on our little man's tournament ~ such a unique experience from the opening ceremonies to competing. Although he didn't place , we are so proud that he got up there in the ring to complete with kids twice his size and height - not to mention do his Shim Jun 1st Degree Black Belt form, 81 moves long!

He was awarded the Songham Spirit Award which is a beautiful medal to add to his repetoire :) This was his 3rd TKD tournament and while it doesn't get any easier for me *gulp!*, I have to stand proud in his accomplishments of being courageous, strong and showing amazing sportsmanship.

And I won't keep you waiting any longer! He chose #17 as a random number which means ... congratulations goes to LYNN McAuley on winning the Halloween critters blog candy!! Please contact me at Kelnkids@aol.com

so I can get your prize out to you!

Todays' card is for the Crafters of Faith blogging group, a blessed

group of sisters in Christ and crafting! This month, our hostess Carol is having some computer troubles and taking a bit of a break so I stepped in for her with "Anything Goes" this month - letting the girls chose their own scriptures, image and/or sentiment ... to surprise us! :)

This is the bible verse I chose to use this month, one that I'm always particularly fond of not just in times of sorrow but in sharing that God's love for us is truly eminent and abundant:

May the God of hope fill you with all the joy an peace as you trust in Him,

so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. ~Roman 15:13

And my card!

I went with the simple approach this time around - using a stamp from

Our Daily Bread's Quote collection, stamped in Bermuda Bay ink to match the cardstock/papers and "spritzed" around the edge with Tattered Angels glimmer mist in Carribbean Blue. I also added on a bold butterfly using the

The Calendar Girls - a card group on SCS - has a monthly, themed card challenge and this month, our hostess is sweet Terry.

Here theme is this:

SEPTEMBER 2013 CHALLENGE

Miss September: Terry

September is a month full of changes. From the leaves on the trees changing colors, to me changing how old I am.

My challenge to you is to use the attached sketch to create a birthday card. Your card can be for a male or a female but it needs to include one type of embossing....can be dry embossed cardstock or a wet embossed image, your choice!

Have fun with it and create something wonderful!

Here's the wonderful sketch:

And my take:

{From the side}

{and a peek inside}

I LOVED her chosen sketch - it was fun to work with!

I am continuing forth with my "Use Every Stamp 2013" class and my personal goal to ink up non-used SU! stamps, like this one called "A Howling Good Time." I had to laugh when I saw this set in my stash and have NO EARTHLY idea why I even bought it or when! It has sat for years, poor thing.

I think this will end up on the BST board on SCS ;)

And I did attempt the embossing part - it was horrid!

I'm sorry, Terry! I tried! :) I'll even show you

AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST, rofl!

Just peek with one eye open, okay? :)

As for the birthday part, my beautiful niece has a bday the day

before Halloween so I left this pretty spookalicious and fun

as she gets the biggest kick out of all things Halloween and loves

almost being born on H'ween!

Embossing - *Nailed it!* Not!

This is clearly a technique I will have to work on w/ black powders ...

it looked beautiful when I tried it in sand, white and gold so I'm not sure what went wrong here but whatever it was, it didn't get onto my card.

hosted by Julia Dunnit over at Stamping Ground. It's wonderful to see the posts all around the globe and peek at different crafts in progress! It's hugely embarrassing to have a messy, messy desk but I've been short on time! Keeping up with the house is a must, my craft room not so much :)

9.20.2013

Today, I walked into my own home and did not recognize it ;)Nope, this is NOT my house. During the week, someone clearly took my nice, clean, and organized home and turned it upside down with enough craft supplies and activities to turn it into a store! From spiders to pumpkins, tempera paint to t-shirts, jars, glue and googly eyes - oh my!My dh, bless his sweet heart, walks in every day, smiles and shakes his head. He's an amazing man, unbelievably patient and good-natured. He always offers to help, and he means it to the core of his being, but somehow seeing that *deer in the head-lights* look when being handed a jar of Modge-Podge gets me laughing every time!

I do feel bad for temporarily taking over our formal sitting area.He did built me an entire craft room {lovingly called The Cabana} but ..............I need to do inventory! I'm a visual learner. I gots to SEE it. If it's not in front of my own googly eyeballs, it isn't here. That's just how I roll ;)And it helps to have samples! If I see it, I want to make it! :)So while you might not have seen my traditional cards, I have been busy! Very, VERY busy! I have about 6 things going at once, and that's just craft related.Indeed this was the year of Simplicity. The year I wanted life to be less chaotic, more christ-centered, more goal oriented towards bringing serenity to my very, VERY busy life. But I take joy in knowing that while most all of what you see above is for my son's class - at a christian, faith-based private school - it brings me closer to my children, faith-filled other moms. We start each day, each project, each coffee chat morning with prayer! :)Here's a peek at my very crafty world ............ I will post all finished projects for you to see as well (+ over on Pinterest, too!)

BOO!!

Did I scare you?! :)

Future monster rocks!

These resting spiders will eventually go in their webs ... stay tuned!

Mason jars - not just for Sweet Tea anymore! ;)

He is on his way to becoming a Harvest Punkin!!

(I'm SUPER excited about this one!)

My ridiculously messing desk with a plethora of foam paint brushes.

20 - that's TWENTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - of these at Michaels

for $1!! They are .5c apiece! These are heading to the

school's art teachers after I finished the can decor + tag.

And the classroom t-shirts!!! YAY!!

This is a once a year project for the 'classroom theme'

and it's tedious, a lot of hardwork, sweat and some tears - HA!

But with the support of my besties - MUAH! -

we'll get together this Monday for coffee, prayer, chatting and finishing what I started here ... we will be at the school where I secured a room for us

{Even though my daughter, K, doesn't read my blog, a SUPER special thank you for her stopping by the table last night to keep me company, catch up on some mommy/daughter talk and chatting with me while I finished a few of the shirts - Your painting ROCKS! Love you, kiddo!}

15 more shirts to go! :)

And that's a small glimpse into my crafty little world from this week!

I feel incredibly blessed, disastrous house and all ;) This time passes too quickly and I know they will only be small once *sniff, sniff!* I smile at the remembrance of the girls being little and how much fun we had each and every year, and walking by my son's side now doing it all over again ~ it's bliss :)

Well, I found my broom! Time to get cleanin' and go tackle my floors while the house is quiet before it gets embellished and turned into decor for my front porch! *smile!* I'll enter this post into the Monthly link-up at OAB :)

9.16.2013

Hi there! It's time for a new Riley and Company bi-weekly challenge, brought to us by our DT member, Laurie. Here is her super fun themed challenge:

We celebrate the season with a Grape & Wine festival in our town!

Be inspired by grapes or wine, literally or the colour, a sentiment, etc.

I love Autumn and the wonders of this season upon us! So being inspired by nature and the colors of Fall, I created this Riley card using purple (etc!)

I can't tell you how much fun, yet challenging, it was to come up with a way to make Wheat Riley into a purple card!

I remembered a recent trip to the lake with my son late one afternoon when the skies were just turning a kaleidoscope of colors in pinks and oranges and yellows and even a hint of orchid ...

Indian Summer colors!!

Here is the front of my card:

And the inside, left blank for now :)

Isn't he cute with his purple overalls!

I'm pretty sure he's about to sing his sweetie, Sophie, a purty lil

tune on his banjo :)

And, of course, we would love for you to play along!

To play create a card using Riley and Company images.

Once you have created your card/project, post it HERE on the blog and place a comment with a link to your card/project to this post so that we can see what you created. If you upload your card/project to SCS don't forget to include the keyword RILEY1913. We can't wait to see what you create!

We always encouraged our 4 to try something - anything - you just never know where your interests will lie if you don't give it a whirl!

I still carry the memory of them dancing in The Nutcracker every Christmas :)

Here is the front of the card:

And here is the inside:

I am getting a bit of a head start on some special occasion

cards I needed to make. It's always nice to have a basket of ready to go

cards on my desk. I colored this digi with prismacolor markers and added some pearls about the white cardstock to break up the monotony. The artist of Abi Ballerina is Wendy Burns and you can find her DT call, as well as her lovely digi images, in her etsy shop - some serious cuteness in there!

9.03.2013

Good Morning! Rushing through today to post this super fun card for the new Riley and Company challenge ~ create a masculine card :)

Did I ever mention I LOVE Mystery/crime shows! I do! I do!

I grew up sitting by my dad watching episodes of Kojak and Columbo

and then later such shows like Magnum PI and Miami Vice ;)

Not to mention my nose was always in a book, especially the Nancy Drew series when I was really young! Of course, there's no comparison to the incredible advances we've made in tv to what you see now-a-days, but it was fun growing up as a Detective, even if it was only in my head :)

For my masculine inspired card, I thought of my dad ~

but this card is actually for my daughter :)

She has been walking/jogging the trails with me a few nights a week and we just have the best time - trying to talk/laugh as we huff and puff our way around the desolate nature trails. Suffice it to say, we've said more than once that one day we hope we don't happen to stumble upon something out in those woods that isn't supposed to be there! Yikes!

Which is why I literally busted out laughing when I saw the Funny Bones sentiment release "I don't trust joggers .... " How hilarious!!!